Muckrakers Being Muckraked

[Caulder Dune]

CORUSCANT
LEVEL 1289, SECTOR Q

Frankly, Adekos had to see it to believe it. He wasn't a real big fan of the news networks and such, but sometimes individuals stood out. Like Zeltron news reporters who relentlessly belittled the Jedi. Darth Adekos hadn't intended to come to this little shanty-town for quite some time, but if a fetching pink ex-celebrity was meandering about the place, suddenly things on his schedule realigned himself. More than that, though, was the idea that he could potentially put her to use. Frankly there were some individuals stinking up the galaxy that weren't getting the kind of harsh news coverage they deserved. Gerion was no media persona, a willing, sufficiently desperate pawn would be required.

The landspeeder ground to halt outside the shanty, the cloaked and masked form of Darth Adekos stepping out from the back seat. The front doors opened up, and a duo of TA4s stepped out. Another one exited from the other passenger door, but it remained by the speeder as a guard, toting a large BlasTech rifle. The other two followed Adekos towards the shanty town, a few of the more active residents saw him coming and started off in the opposite direction. They were aware of the One Sith's resettlement program that he headed. They didn't recognize him exactly, of course, but they knew enough to not walk towards the scary cloaked Sith and his equally scary droids.

But one of them was too slow and seized by both droids. He squealed, predictably, and the alcohol that stained his breath hit Adekos' face like a train. What was wrong with this peasants? Money for booze and not for... Anything productive? Disgusting.

"You. Where is this woman?" Adekos withdrew a professional photo of one [member="Simone"].

He pointed to the little miserable hut on the Eastern side of the shanty. Adekos nodded, pocketed the photo, and gestured for his droids to follow. Once they reached the shack, one of the droids began to pound upon the door with intolerable force.

"Open the door, please. We've come for a chat."

It sounded sincere, but only in the sarcastic sort of way.

 

[Simone]

New spread quickly through shanty towns, when everyone was shoulder to shoulder it was hard not to over hear. The sith were in town. The sith were the last people Simone wanted to come face to face with. It was easier to avoid them by moving, not by staying in one place, so the droids could hammer all day on the door of her shoddy little hut. Simone wasn't inside it. She'd left it, moved with the rest of the crowd away from the sith and the doubled back, looping round till she was behind them.

Gravel crunched under her feet as she leveled the blaster at the trio. A pointless weapon against a force user in the grand scheme of things, more so in the hands of someone who was a terrible shot, but it made her feel better.

"Why would you want to talk to me?"

[member="Darth Adekos"]

 

[Caulder Dune]

[member="Simone"]

Darth Adekos' head half-turned around, as much as it could. He'd rather not get shot, blasterproof vest or not, so both him and the droids remained still otherwise. This was all rather inconvenient. Here he had only come for a pleasant chat, and now he was being held up by the homeless. Adekos hadn't fallen for the old "circle around back and get them while they're knocking" trick for a while. Next time he'd have send one of the droids around back. Whenever the next time he needed to pick up a Zeltron quasi-celebrity, that is.

"I was hoping for an autograph." He said, a little Force Persuasion laced into his otherwise dry words. "Please point that somewhere else."

 

[Simone]

Simone blinked, taken aback by the idea that anyone would want her autograph. How did anyone remember who she was these days? There were far echuta fish to fry after all. She lowered the blaster so it was pointing roughly at legs instead of heads.

"That's cute." she said with a cold smile "But you're gonna need to give me a little more than that before we talk."

[member="Darth Adekos"]

 

[Caulder Dune]

echuta fish to fry

[member="Simone"]

He could see her lower her pistol towards the ground. That was good, maybe he would live after all. What a dire tale his life would have been to survive someone like Shorn or Je'gan and events like Roche and Kashyyyk only to be put down at the second height of his power by a homeless, unemployed reporter. Frankly, it was such a miserable scenario that Adekos was starting to become surprised that it didn't actually happen. He had better stop thinking about it. He turned around, slowly, so she didn't try and shoot him for that either.

"A little more? How does an opportunity for employment doing what you do best sound? Maybe a new place to live..."

Adekos cast his gaze around the squalid little hamlet. Dilapidated shacks, tattered makeshift bedrolls, barrel fires, an abominable amount of homeless, unkempt aliens.

"Or perhaps you prefer the squalor."

 

[Simone]

[OOC: it was nearly 2am...thats my excuse and i'm sticking to it.]

"Squalor beats working for the bad guys."

It was meant to sound defiant, confident and all the things that would make her look like she really wasn't interested. Simone sighed. What did she care? The republic weren't so different from the One Sith, their oppression was simply masked behind daisy's and false smiles. At least the sith were honest about their intent.

The blaster slid neatly back into its holster. "Lets start with food, and a sanisteam and then we can talk about work."

[member="Darth Adekos"]

 

[Caulder Dune]

[member="Simone"]

For a man with a weapon being pointed in his face, Adekos certainly balked loudly. "I don't think even a Jedi would believe that."

Squalor instead of working for the bad guys? If that was the prevailing notion around these parts, it was really no wonder these underlevels were in such miserable shape. Maybe they were just trying to play it safe. After all, the only thing that could be worse than squalor or being employed by bad people such as himself would be both working for bad people and living in squalor. That was the case for most of these hooligans, the ones that acted as hired thugs and drug peddlers. But they'd all be put to good use in the coming days. Colonists and laborers on underdeveloped planets.

Nevertheless, she holstered her sidearm and made her demands. That was a relief to the Dark Jedi; she would be destined for better things after all.

"I'll have my shuttle brought around." He nodded towards one of his droids, which marched off to do just that. "Why don't you tell me how you ended up down here?"

 

[Simone]

Simone wrinkled her nose at the question. "A job went sour." She wasn't going into details on the job as it involved slicing into Sith security to track down an individual that had posted a bounty. "My extraction never showed and I wound up stuck here."

She smiled slightly "Ain't no ones fault but my own for taking a job without first meeting my employer. Not a mistake I'm going to make twice." She moved past him, eyeing the droids nervously before pushing open the door to her shack. Grabbing a satchel she began shoving the few possesions she had, among them a holorecorder and a personal computer. She stuffed a handful of clothes in with them and moved back towards the door. Pausing in the doorway she cast a glance over the dark hole.

It was bizzare to think she might feel somewhat sad about leaving such a dive, but its had been a safe house for a short while and for that she was grateful. Stepping outside sheslung the bag over her shoulder and settled her gaze on him. "Who are you?" she asked.

[member="Darth Adekos"]

 

[Caulder Dune]

[member="Simone"]

"Darth Adekos." He said simply, extending his hand. "I coordinate the rehabilitation program here on Coruscant, taking the destitute and turning them into productive colonists."

He decided to leave out that they had, in fact, met before, largely because he wasn't sure if it happened. There had been that instance where he had been sent back in time to witness some idiotic series of events pertaining to some Akala she-wench. Simone had been there and had insulted him rather... Intensely. Then ridiculing his descent from power over the Sith Empire as well. It had not been a pretty exchange of words. But her acknowledgement of his identity then had been problematic, so he would try to avoid identifying himself any further at this point as well.

"Fortunately, greater things than laboring are in store for you."

 

[Simone]

"Adekos..." she repeated frowning slightly as she ran the name through her mind, trying to see if she had anything at all on him in her memory. She came up blank, something that annoyed her greatly. It meant she had nothing on him, nothing to use for an insult or to save her own skin. She made a mental note to change that in the near furture, for now though she opted for an almost civilised response.

Simone extended her hand. "I'd say it's a pleasure, but i'd by lying. Can we go now?"

[member="Darth Adekos"]

 

[Caulder Dune]

[member="Simone"]

He chortled and shook her hand. "Never lie to an Umbaran, Simone. It's a waste of time for the both of us."

The shuttle arrived shortly after that. It was a small vessel, but then again it had to be if it was navigating the airspace of Coruscant's underlevels. Fortunately there was enough space to accommodate the three droids in a separate passenger area. The doors opened automatically, and the Umbaran entered on one side while leaving Simone to the other. He picked up a datapad that had been resting on the seat before sliding in himself. Provided Simone didn't loiter for very long and actually entered the shuttle, they would be off and away in no time.

With the speed of someone who clearly did a lot of work from any number of datapads or electronic devices, Adekos dispatched orders to the pilot and made the necessary arrangements for a nice hotel.

"We have a few minutes before we reach our destination, so we'll have to get started. What do you know about the Silver Jedi?"

 

[Simone]

Simone closed her eyes briefly as she settled into the speeder, the hum of the engines was surprisingly soothing. It was a relief to get out of that little hell hole, even if she was riding to another one, in this brief moment of time it didn't matter. She sighed and opened her eyes, acutely aware of just how dirty she was in comparison the the speeders shining interior.

She pursed her lips at the question. "I know that they were originally made up of Jedi who left the Order. Reasons for them leaving vary, some left because not enough was being done about the sith, some left because the disagreed with the Republic's methods and its leash on the Order. Whatever," she shrugged "I stopped paying attention to Jedi politics some time ago. Now? Well, they're just another Order aren't they? Set on fighting the sith like everyone else in the galaxy."

She cast a sideways glance at him. "Why?"

[member="Darth Adekos"]

 

[Caulder Dune]

[member="Simone"]

"Because they're actually a gaggle of charlatans and fools." Darth Adekos clarified. No one intent on fighting the Sith retreated to a far corner of the galaxy and barely budged from it. "Perhaps I shouldn't complain about the ineptness of my enemies, but they've been far too comfortable for far too long."

Adekos glanced out the window, watching the quickening transition from the downtrodden slums to a more middle-class area as they ascended in altitude. It would be some time before they reached the hotel, given it was located in one of the swankier areas of Coruscant. The higher the altitude, the nicer the locale, Adekos had found.

"Since their founding, the Silver Jedi have taken more steps towards the hoarding of useless baubles and trinkets than anything else. I am of the opinion that this needs more exposure."

 

[Simone]

This was leading down a path Simone wasn't entirely sure she wanted to go down. Given the chance, she'd do what she could against the sith, yet here she was sitting in a speeder with one who was offering her a job. In the grand scheme of things, who was she? What difference could she make? She'd long abandoned the idea that by stamping her feet and making a lot of noise she could make a difference, that she could make people see the truth of it all.

"Right," she said simply, running a hand through her hair briefly, "So, this is where I come in."

She inclined her head slightly and looked away out of the window. It made sense, the sIlver Jedi were not so much of a concern for the sith to waste their own time exposing them, so they'd send her to do it instead. if they had nothing but useless trinkets and baubles, what could she possible use to throw them under the bus. "This is about discrediting them, isolating them from their allies and making them look like fools. One less enemy for you to worry about, because lets face it, they've hardly got the resources to fight a war on their own. What makes you think I'll do it?"

[member="Darth Adekos"]